Silent Bells

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The third Disney animated feature film, it consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Music critic and composer Deems Taylor acts as the film's Master of Ceremonies who introduces each segment in live-action. The film's production was supervised by Walt Disney and Ben Sharpsteen, with story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer. Disney conceived the project in 1938 during the completion of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was originally planned as an elaborate Silly Symphony cartoon to revive the declining popularity of Mickey Mouse. When rising production costs threatened to outpace the short's potential revenue, Disney expanded the concept into a feature-length musical compilation with Stokowski and Taylor as collaborators. To accommodate the ambitious soundtrack, Disney and RCA developed Fantasound, a pioneering sound system that made Fantasia the first commercial film released in stereo and a precursor to surround sound. Fantasia was first released as a theatrical roadshow that premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on November 13, 1940. Disney funded and managed the roadshow himself until RKO Radio Pictures took over the roadshow distribution from April 1941, showing the film in a total of 13 U.S. cities. Despite widespread critical acclaim, the film was an initial box office failure. Its high production costs, the steep expense of leasing theatres and installing Fantasound equipment, and the loss of the European market due to World War II left the studio unable to turn a profit. Beginning in 1942, the film was reissued in a standard format by RKO and Buena Vista Distribution multiple times, with subsequent releases deleting, modifying, or restoring original footage and audio. Over time, these re-releases proved highly profitable; when adjusted for inflation, Fantasia ranks as the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. Fantasia has since earned a reputation as one of the greatest animated films ever made. In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranked it as the 58th greatest American film overall in its 100 Years...100 Movies and the fifth greatest animated film on the 10 Top 10 list. The film's legacy has expanded into a multimedia franchise encompassing video games, theme park attractions, live concert tours, and the 1999 sequel, Fantasia 2000.